Life Behind Bars

A day-long conference at the Smithsonian Institution recently honored the 25-year anniversary of the Universal Product Code. The standardized bar code on retail consumer products allowed stores to considerably speed up checkout by using laser scanners on approximately 5 billion items purchased per day worldwide. “In all my years, I’ve seen nothing that has changed the industry like the Universal Product Code,” exclaimed Bob Martin, former president of Wal-Mart’s international division. Some at the conference joked the bar code was the biggest innovation in supermarkets since sliced bread. (AP) ...Which is also a random collection of thick and thin.